With respect to Blue Origin in Texas, Bezos owns about 200,000 acres in west Texas. The larger portion (165,000 acres) is for launches and recovery of Blue Origin spacecraft. There is also a 30,000 acre ranch which serves as a residence. The nearest town is Van Horn. Van Horn is 120 miles east of El Paso, and 165 miles west of Odessa. Its a launch site because civilization is absent.

Sure doesn't sound like he is allergic to Texas because of its politics.

His Blue Origin property holdings in west Texas are 80 percent of the size of Norfolk County. 200,000 acres = about 320 square miles.

The three principal rocket launch facilities in the U.S. -- Kennedy Space Center, Vandenberg AFB, and Wallops, have a combined total of about 250 square miles. Blue Origin's presence in Texas is driven entirely by the availability of large tracts of privately held land.

__________________A man gazing on the stars is at the mercy of the puddles in the road

Social liberal, donating tens of millions on scholarships for Dreamers. He may be disinclined to locate HQ2 in a state where the politics are at odds with key aspects of his social liberalism.

If Bezos wants to make an impact politically I think that is a point for DC (for obvious reasons) and for Philadelphia (because Amazon may have the power to turn a purple state blue).

__________________"You cannot take in a whole Boston street with a single glance of the eye and then lose your interest because you have thus taken the edge off future discovery; on the contrary, every step reveals some portion of a building which you could not see before, some change in your vista, and some suggestion of pleasant variety yet to come, which not only keeps your interest alive but heightens it and persuades you to go on."

His Blue Origin property holdings in west Texas are 80 percent of the size of Norfolk County. 200,000 acres = about 320 square miles.

The three principal rocket launch facilities in the U.S. -- Kennedy Space Center, Vandenberg AFB, and Wallops, have a combined total of about 250 square miles. Blue Origin's presence in Texas is driven entirely by the availability of large tracts of privately held land.

And the more south the launch site is ... the more economical the launch. (according to physics ... otherwise known as fake news). That is why everyone launches from as close to the equator as possible. France launches in South America. Seriously.

And the more south the launch site is ... the more economical the launch. (according to physics ... otherwise known as fake news). That is why everyone launches from as close to the equator as possible. France launches in South America. Seriously.

cca

Not to derail (though honestly, we didn't want that last conversation to continue) but France launches from France... in South America. French Guiana is an overseas department and is just as much France as Hawaii is the US.

Not to derail (though honestly, we didn't want that last conversation to continue) but France launches from France... in South America. French Guiana is an overseas department and is just as much France as Hawaii is the US.

Exactly, the last mainland Americas region controlled by European overlords.

Not to derail (though honestly, we didn't want that last conversation to continue) but France launches from France... in South America. French Guiana is an overseas department and is just as much France as Hawaii is the US.

If Bezos wants to make an impact politically I think that is a point for DC (for obvious reasons) and for Philadelphia (because Amazon may have the power to turn a purple state blue).

Philly and its suburbs are already solidly blue, Amazon making it bluer doesn't help. If anything, Philadelphia growing in economic power and stature would just piss off Pennsyltucky voters even more. I don't think voting patterns in PA will influence the decision beyond the fact that Philly+burbs are solidly blue and a comfortable political fit for the majority of Amazon's typical employees.

Now we'd really derail things, but Russia is actually trying to abandon the Kazakhstan site because it's annoyed with the lease agreement. They just built a new launch site in Russia, but lost their rocket when they (really) forgot to change the programmed launch parameters from the old ones.

Not to derail (though honestly, we didn't want that last conversation to continue) but France launches from France... in South America. French Guiana is an overseas department and is just as much France as Hawaii is the US.

I know that ... but the piece of land is South America. Yes? So ... we are good right?

Going with DC first given Bezos DC connections and available public transit NYC not getting talked about enough. Least amount of disruption and city could accommodate in a blink of an eye. Boston will try to slide in on best education plus 2nd most extensive transit system after NYC but far cheaper than NYC. If cost is a bigger factor than we'd been thinking Austin looks better. Between the rest of the East Coast cities where I feel Amazon will locate Philly beats out Atlanta (huge suburban sprawl, no transit), Baltimore (a dump where you have a good chance of getting killed), or a place like Pittsburgh (too small).

I smell a trend in migrating any new growth out of insanely expensive western metros with severe housing shortages.

Also my strong emphasis on Baltimore is the fact that the metro area overlaps with DC but DC has strong height restrictions and limited land. So Baltimore is my way of saying DC. Assuming Amazon doesn't want to locate in the DC suburbs and wants an urban campus.